Spitz: Milford travel agency finds room to soar

In a world where a few taps on your smartphone can book a flight to Florida or a hotel in France, travel agent Elaine Osgood is used to hearing predictions of her industry’s imminent demise.

Julia Spitz/Daily News staff

In a world where a few taps on your smartphone can book a flight to Florida or a hotel in France, travel agent Elaine Osgood is used to hearing predictions of her industry’s imminent demise.

But this is a woman with a large white globe next to her desk and a pair of red boxing gloves hanging from her office doorknob.

Her Milford-based travel management firm has not only weathered the rise of the Internet, its gross revenues grew $60 million in the past two years.

She has owned the agency for the past 26 years, first as a Uniglobe franchise and since 1997 as Atlas Travel International.

This is hardly the first time that Osgood has beaten the odds, boosted the bottom line and brought in acknowledgements such as being ranked No. 18 on this year’s national list of flourishing businesses owned by women.

The Women Presidents’ Organization, a nonprofit organization with 97 chapters internationally, and American Express Open, the small business division of American Express, also named her business to their Top 50 lists in 2010 and 2011.

When she was a franchise owner, “we grew to be the largest Uniglobe in the United States.’’

What she’s most proud of, however, is her company’s “stellar reputation. I safeguard that,’’ she said.

Another source of pride is not having a single layoff in her 26 years as an employer.

“Not even after 9/11,’’ when the world of leisure travel came to a grinding halt.

After the attacks, “we went on a four-day work week, so everyone had to take a pay cut, but in six months, we were back to full time. ... I am truly blessed with the people who are working here,’’ including the 14 hired in the last two years to bring the number of employees to 150.

So what accounts for the Westborough resident’s surprising success?

“There’s no secret sauce,’’ she said. In a nutshell, the secret boils down to hard work and lots of it. And “figuring out what people need.’’

Not that she started out her adult life as a budding entrepreneur.

She started out as a teacher.

Growing up in Worcester, “my dad was a schoolteacher,’’ and it seemed like a rewarding career. But she “got bumped out’’ two years later, when a dip in the school-aged population led to layoffs and she had no seniority.

So she went to work for the state’s Department of Social Services and went back to school to get her master’s degree in psychology from Anna Maria College in Paxton.

“After eight years’’ of investigating child abuse cases, “it was time for me to look for something else to do.’’

She thought about “hanging up my shingle’’ as a psychologist, but decided to look at business opportunities instead. She passed on Jiffy Lube and video rental franchises before the Uniglobe opportunity caught her eye.

“Travel. That was sexy,’’ she thought, even though the extent of her travel experience had been going to Florida as a college student.

The stumbling block was the required $100,000 investment.

“We mortgaged our home, got a small business loan, borrowed from friends and family.’’

And while she knew they could rely on her husband’s income, even if the business went belly up, “failure is not an option, I kept telling myself.

“I hired one person, who was a travel agent,’’ since Osgood had no experience in the field, and then “I spent eight hours a day, calling, calling, calling’’ to drum up corporate accounts. “We focused on corporate travel. That was our base.’’

In those pre-Internet days, nights and weekends were spent driving around the region’s industrial parks looking for the names of new companies to call.

Getting the Milford office was a godsend back in the days when paper airline tickets had to be delivered to customers and easy highway access to so many communities was key, she said.

Through the years, the company has grown and branched out beyond basic leisure and corporate travel.

There are two full-service centers, one in Milford, one in Lexington; the Savvy Traveler shop in Lexington that sells luggage, accessories and women’s apparel designed to be suitcase-friendly; agents in 26 states servicing accounts; and Atlas Meetings and Incentives. Atlas focuses on making arrangements for all elements of corporate meetings, from travel to finding a speaker or securing audiovisual equipment.

Atlas is also a representative of the international BCD Travel firm. The affiliation allows Atlas to offer global service to foreign travelers with agents “in their own language,’’ in their own countries, she said.

“It’s global, so there’s a lot to pay attention to,’’ and Atlas’ staffers are “feet on the street’’ checking out accommodations all over the world, said Osgood.

But nowadays, “we’re (also) a very virtual company. Our corporate customers, for the most part, don’t need to sit down with us face-to-face.

“We’re a very profitable company, but you still have to be very careful, watch how you spend your money. You always have to be watching the bottom line.’’

Yes, she knows.

“The perception is that all travel agencies aren’t going to be here much longer.’’

But she’s also sure of two things.

“If you take a risk and stay focused, it’s amazing what you can do.’’

If you stay focused, you can keep growing by leaps and bounds, “one customer at a time.’’

(Julia Spitz can be reached at 508-626-3968 or jspitz@wickedlocal.com. You can also read the Spitz Bits blog at www.metrowestdailynews.com/blogs/spitzbits and follow tweets at twitter.com/SpitzJ.)